Disclosure

It had begun.

Fifteen minutes later, Blackburn met with Garvin in the fifth-floor executive conference room. Also present at the meeting were Stephanie Kaplan and Bill Everts, the head of Human Resources at DigiCom.

Blackburn began the meeting by saying, "Tom Sanders has retained outside counsel and is threatening litigation over Meredith Johnson."

"Oh, Christ," Garvin said.

"He’s claiming sexual harassment."

Garvin kicked the leg of the table. "That son of a bitch."

Kaplan said, "What does he say happened?"

"I don’t have all the details yet," Blackburn said. "But in essence he claims that Meredith made sexual overtures to him in her office last night, that he turned her down, and that now she is being vindictive."

Garvin gave a long sigh. "Shit," he said. "This is just what I didn’t want to happen. This could be a disaster."

"I know, Bob."

Stephanie Kaplan said, "Did she do it?"

"Christ," Garvin said. "Who knows in these situations. That’s always the question." He turned to Everts. "Has Sanders come to you about this?"

"Not yet, no. I imagine he will."

"We have to keep it in-house," Garvin said. "That’s essential."

"Essential," Kaplan said, nodding. "Phil has to make sure it stays in-house."

"I’m trying," Blackburn said. "But Sanders is talking about filing tomorrow with the HRC."

"That’s a public filing?"

"Yes."

"How soon is it made public?"

"Probably within forty-eight hours. Depending on how fast HRC does the paperwork."

"Christ," Garvin said. "Forty-eight hours? What’s the matter with him? Doesn’t he realize what he’s doing?"

Blackburn said, "I think he does. I think he knows exactly."

"Blackmail?"

"Well. Pressure."

Garvin said, "Have you talked to Meredith?"

"Not since this morning."

"Somebody’s got to talk to her. I’ll talk to her. But how are we going to stop Sanders?"

Blackburn said, "I asked him to hold off the HRC filing, pending our investigation, for thirty days. He said no. He said we should be able to conduct our investigation in one day."

"Well, he got that right," Garvin said. "For all kinds of reasons, we damn well better conduct the investigation in one day."

"Bob, I don’t know if that’s possible," Blackburn said. "We have significant exposure here. The corporation is required by law to conduct a thorough and impartial investigation. We can’t appear to be rushed or-"

"Oh, for Christ’s sake," Garvin said. "I don’t want to hear this legal pissing and moaning. What are we talking about? Two people, right? And no witnesses, right? So there’s just two people. How long does it take to interview two people?"

"Well, it may not be that simple," Blackburn said, with a significant look.

"I’ll tell you what’s simple," Garvin said. "This is what’s simple. Conley-White is a company obsessed with its public image. They sell textbooks to school boards that believe in Noah’s ark. They sell magazines for kids. They have a vitamin company. They have a health-food company that markets baby foods. Rainbow Mush or something. Now Conley-White’s buying our company, and in the middle of the acquisition a high-profile female executive, the woman in line to become CEO within two years, is accused of seeking sexual favors from a married man. You know what they’re going to do if that gets out? They’re going to bail. You know that Nichols is looking for any excuse to weasel out of this thing. This is perfect for him. Christ."

"But Sanders has already questioned our impartiality," Blackburn said. "And I’m not sure how many people know about the, ah, prior questions that we-"

"Quite a few," Kaplan said. "And didn’t it come up at an officers’ meeting last year?"

"Check the minutes," Garvin said. "We have no legal problem with current corporate officers, is that right?"

"That’s right," Blackburn said. "Current corporate officers cannot be questioned or deposed on these matters."

"And we haven’t lost any corporate officers in the last year? Nobody retired or moved?"

"No."

"Okay. So fuck him." Garvin turned to Everts. "Bill, I want you to go back through the HR records, and look carefully at Sanders. See if he’s dotted every i and crossed every t. If he hasn’t, I want to know."

"Right," Everts said. "But my guess is he’s clean."

"All right," Garvin said, "let’s assume that he is. What’s it going to take to make Sanders go away? What does he want?"

Blackburn said, "I think he wants his job, Bob."

"He can’t have his job."

"Well, that’s the problem," Blackburn said.

Garvin snorted. "What’s our liability, assuming he ever got to trial?" "I don’t think he has a case, based on what happened in that office. Our biggest liability would come from any perceived failure to respect due process and conduct a thorough investigation. Sanders could win on that alone, if we’re not careful. That’s my point."

"So we’ll be careful. Fine."

"Now, guys," Blackburn said. "I feel strongly obliged to insert a note of caution. The extreme delicacy of this situation means that we have to be mindful of the details. As Pascal once said, `God is in the details.’ And in this case, the competing balance of legitimate legal claims forces me to admit it’s unclear precisely what our best-"